Intellectual Property
Nov. 6, 2025
USPTO shakes up IPR as director reclaims institution authority
By consolidating both discretionary and merits-based institution decisions under the Director, the USPTO has reshaped the IPR process -- leaving accused infringers to rethink their litigation strategy.
In 2011, Congress passed the America Invents Act (AIA). The AIA established a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) comprised of Administrative Patent Judges (APJs) to handle a new proceeding called inter partes review (IPR). An IPR allows a petitioner to challenge the validity of an issued patent in a more streamlined proceeding than litigation in federal district court. An IPR has two phases. The first is an institution phase that involves determining whether an IPR p...
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